Yeap. I do exactly the same thing too. It is a waste of time to read the questions on the lead form and answer carefully, just randomly click an answer is much faster.

Yes, engineers will fill in the lead form, it's the necessary evil to get to the white paper, data sheet or whatever you need to download. But I highly doubt the quality of information collected by the lead forms. They are probably all junks.

In my professional life, I'm mostly on the marketing side of this equation. Outside of that, I build MCU things, I experiment with FPGAs, I code here and there, and I write about it. I hope that gives me perspective to be more helpful than invasive.

In my mind, marketing is primarily about understanding a potential customer's dialect so that I can better give information. I don't want to force information on anyone, and I don't want to mislead anyone. The better I understand the people I am marketing to, the better I can present information is such a way that they can make an informed decision.

The better I understand what they need, the better I can try to make my service cover those needs. That's the reasoning behind requests for demographic information. Some mareting folks go way overboard in the information they try and get.

I also think it's pretty important to share. I learn a tremendous amount from the prototype jobs we run through our shop. I take what I learn, make sure it's not identifiable or proprietary in any way, and write about it on our company blog, no strings attached, no registration required.

The quandary comes in when, in my zeal, I want to tell as many people as possible about what we do. I really believe that my company does something very valuable. If I didn't believe in it, I wouldn't be here. But, I also know that it's not valuable to everyone.

The marketing challenge is to get clear, accurate information to people that need it and want it, without wasting the time of anyone who doesn't need or want it.

I would say that a pretty good mantra for anyone in technical marketing is: "Don't waste anyone's time."

@Frank Tu "Yes, you go to EELive and by signing up you apparently give every company that buys a booth or sends a speaker permission to send you sales material, good and bad.

I manage EE LIVE! and I can confirm that we do not give out attendee information other than badge scans to any companies that exhibit or speak at our events.

Thanks for sharing your perspectives on this type of content on EE Times - the audience for this blog is intended to be technical marketers, which are part of the EE Times community. "Whipping up" our engineering audience was not the intention here.

TE here, we're listening. Thanks for your feedback regarding our site. Generally, our documents are available without registering or signing in – simply click "no thanks". However, there are some products whose documents do have registration requirement around them. We're in the process of improving our site and we'd sure like to hear from you if you have more feedback for us. Please contact us at brand@te.com. - ES

Yes, you go to EELive and by signing up you apparently give every company that buys a booth or sends a speaker permission to send you sales material, good and bad. This article seems to just want to say "ha, ha, we tricked you engineers into giving marketers your info by handing out business cards".

You think that's bad, try pre-registering as a member of the press. The press list goes to every PR person on the planet. Most of them don't bother to research what the editor does before e-mailing or even worse, calling.

I went to IMS (Microwave Symposium) last month. Now I cover test & measurement but I got plenty of requests for product meetings from non-T&M companies. I turned them all down but still had to take the time to tenderly reply. Sometimes, I don't register until I get there, just to avoid the PR barrage. The companies that I want to see already know me an I do make appointments with them. Some editors feel that they have to make every appointment. They book their entire day and have no time for technical sessions or even walking around the exhibit floor.

I've heard from several people that they don't like the EET registration process, that it asks for too much if you just want to quickly register and chome in. Still, we get many new registrations every day. There will always be a few who don't want to give out information. Some use a separate e-mail address for signing up so they won't get e-mails at work where the inbox is open all day.

Having an easy unsubscribe not only helps get people to give info but it gets through spam filters. That's the frist thing spam filters look for. No unsubscribe link and you get blocked.

EDN.com doesn't ask for much info to get you started. You can add info later if you like.

I quite agree with the statement that engineers do not like giving too much of personal details. One reason can be they know very well how this personal information can be misused without taking permission. I personally think twice before giving any personal information. I remember once I was very active on social networkign site, linkedin, skype and writing on many websites, i was surprised one of my friend who is a techie showed me on his laptop that he could get my photo, my facebook profile, my office details my email id, people i tallk to and so on...there are so many apps available who can filter all these data from internet and get a compiled summary.

But then when technical companies ask for registration, its safe and its ok to give data, they wont misuse it or misplace it. Only thing is you keep getting newsletters...that's ok i guess :-)

Agree. When I am in need of some information but I hit a form instead of direct access, it gives me a bad impression of being forced. If it even blocks my access and tries to force me to fill it before access, I feel like being ransomed. If it is just like a banner in the webpage, it looks better. I may even click inside to take a look if it looks interesting. Just like some ads which allow one to skip, I normally take a look if I am not in a hurry. For some forms popping up prior to access, I normally visit other webpages.

I believe human beings like being given choices and they do favours to others when they are offered some favours.